water in my alpha 1 lower unit. HELP please!!!

[seehad79]

First time out this year I heard a funny noise, found out the gimbal bearing is bad. I have a 96 gen II stern drive and when I took it off today to get to the bearing found out that the grease and gear oil has water mixed in with it. I need to find out where the water is coming in at and dont know how to figure it out. i dont think its coming from the u-joint bellow but im not positive by any means. what are the most common places? any tips, advice, hints, about anything would be awsome. thanks

 

[Bt Doctur]

Re: water in my alpha 1 lower unit. HELP please!!!

U joint bellows
high bilge water level
mounting gaskets improperly installed/out of place

 

[seehad79]

Re: water in my alpha 1 lower unit. HELP please!!!

There is very little water that gets in to the hull the bilge pump nevr turns on automatically. It's probably a stupid question but is there any test I could do to narrow the Leak down?

 

[cr2k]

Re: water in my alpha 1 lower unit. HELP please!!!

Drain the oil, clamp the reservoir hose and pressure/vacuum test the unit.

Other possible leak source is the seals between the upper and the lower, plastic seals w/NO metal ring to ensure good fit. Sloppy design here.